Video Production Blog

Behind the Scenes of Hollywood Video Productions

How Does Hollywood Do It?

Last weekend, I caught the movie Hancock on FX, and it was a special that showed behind the scenes of how they made the movie. I am extremely intrigued by specials like these, because I’m constantly wondering how they do some of the effects. They actually animate the whole thing to visualize the scenes before they even shoot any video. Considering they have a huge team of animators, I still can’t imagine the time it takes to create that video production. This 13 second logo animation of Three Point Oh’s logo took me around 3 days to finish. Even though Hollywood takes it to the extreme level with production value, such as lights that could light up a small town or a 50 yard dolly camera that costs twice as much as my car, I have seen several of these aspects on the job here in Greenville, SC.

A few years ago, when the Republican Party came through town, Three Point Oh! was a part of several Fox video shoots with Gingrich, Perry, and Romney. Only a handful of people realize how much really goes into a short ten minute satellite feed. We’ve arrived as early as 4 o’clock in the morning for a network feed starting at 8 o’clock. What could we possibly do for four hours? Well obviously we have to unload all the gear, which depending on the walk can be a good 45 min operation. Unless specifically told what the set is (which is a rare thing), we have to build it from scratch in whatever room we are assigned. This is where the fun part really begins. After setting up the background, powering up the lights, positioning the camera, running audio cables, and touching base with the satellite truck another hour and a half has past. In a perfect world, all we have to do is wait for our talent to arrive. This of course is never the case. Your shot can never be perfect (so I’ve found). Tweaking….and tweaking….and tweaking, then someone comes in and really wants a banner hung in the background, or the window behind him, or the camera on the other side. Now it’s coming down to the wire. After the talent gets there, it’s the easy part. You can stop making changes, frame the shot, and let Fox News do the rest.

We make sure to TiVo the show, so we can see our work as a finished product.